Working mothers 'bad for children'

The children of mothers who return to work full time in the years before they start school have slower emotional development and score less well in reading and maths tests, according to a study published today by the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

The disadvantage starts in primary school and persists into early adulthood, with lower educational attainment, higher unemployment and greater likelihood of childbearing early in life.

An early return to work by the mother reduces the child's chances of progressing to A-level from 60% to 50%. The employment patterns of the father have little effect, said the study by John Ermisch and Marco Francesconi, professors at Essex University.

They found that in Britain, the adverse effect on children was the same whether mothers returned to work full time before the child's first birthday or before the age of five. This ran counter to studies overseas suggesting that a return to work in the first year had more impact on the child.

They said the consequences were less severe for the children of better-educated mothers. And the positive effects of higher household income brought about by the mother returning to work went some way to compensate for the negative effect of reduced contact in the early years.

Prof Francesconi said last night: "Even the children of highly educated mothers who go back to full-time work early will have lower educational attainment. But the disadvantage will not be as much as it is for less educated mums."

He said the findings came in part from studies comparing the outcomes for siblings, looking at the relationship between educational attainment and the age at which the mother returned to full-time work. This confirmed that the negative effect of an early return could not be explained by differences between families.

The study was presented as the first large-scale appraisal of international research on working mothers.

It said: "The long-term effects of maternal employment have their strongest manifestation in lower educational attainments for children in their late teens and early 20s."

Much of the report looked at what happened to children in two-parent families. But it was gloomy about the prospects for the children of lone parents with low educational qualifications being encouraged by the government to take low-income jobs.

The National Family and Parenting Institute said the ISER report ran counter to a recent study of women from Bristol University that showed the timing of a mother's return to work had no influence on their children's development.

A spokeswoman said: "This debate has been rumbling on for a long time without getting anywhere... Findings like this have a massive effect on the self-esteem and levels of guilt experienced by working parents."

For many people the choices about working or not working are entirely financial - particularly on the question about whether to work full time or part time.

"Other research shows parents would like to spend more time with their children. Often it is working practices, particularly for men, that prevent this. We work the longest hours in Europe and the institute is campaigning to change that.

"There are undoubtedly many women who would prefer not to work, or to work part time. But those options are simply not there for them. Parents are increasingly finding creative ways to be with their children more, such as shift parenting."